• LibsEatPoop2 [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    okay, you're confusing a few terms here.

    firstly, our discussion veered off from "shaming people for their dietary habits" long ago. other people were more inclined to argue you on that. this line of discussion started because i wanted to understand what drives you to say humans deserve more rights than animals.

    then, animals should absolutely be considered citizens given they live within the geographic territory. how we should enact and enforce that is different, but legally, they should. and no one, as of yet, has given animals citizenship anyways. the concept of nonhuman personhood is different.

    i don't think it harms people to focus on the immorality of animal mistreatment. it altogether leads to a better way forward for all. no where would i advocate that people who eat animals are bad. i don't think i've ever said that since becoming a leftist. but that's different from the ethics and morality of animal consumption.

    • volkvulture [none/use name]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      animals can only be considered human if humans were to be downgraded

      we are talking about legal personhood, because that is the nexus through which human legal rights & social responsibility come into play

      animals are protected legally in several ways from human acts of abuse, so I am not sure what we're discussing other than expanding legal codified language to include our personal preferences

      • LibsEatPoop2 [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        4 years ago

        okay, animals aren't considered humans. they're considered nonhuman people.

        Human is a short way of saying Homo Sapiens. That is a specific species of hominids, which is a subsection of Mammalia, which is in Animalia, with is in Multicellular Organisms etc etc etc.

        This is an important distinction because it re-frames the question. It is on the same spectrum of whether citizens and residents should be given the same rights, or whether white people and non-white people should be given the same rights. You may think animals aren't people, but others disagree. There is no reason to not consider animals people. Intelligence or brain size or whatever else is arbitrary.

        What rights belong exclusively to humans and what rights belong exclusively to people and whether the two should be separate is an important ethical question.